


The Teacher's Turn

by Staghorn



Category: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni | Higurashi When They Cry
Genre: Blood and Violence, Child Death, Episode Related, Gen, episode 15, higurashi gou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:48:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29247549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Staghorn/pseuds/Staghorn
Summary: Episode 15 of Higurashi When They Cry: Gou presented us with a series of unfortunate events, revolving primarily around the various adult members of the cast. This story is another one in that series that could very well have happened, so you should watch that episode before you read this story.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	The Teacher's Turn

_ How can I work to overturn my fate when it’s led me to places like this, no matter where I turn? _

Rika sat quietly at her desk, eyes staring through the blackboard and out to places beyond the classroom. Blood that wasn’t her own dribbled down the side of her head. The classroom was covered in splashes of crimson that ran down the walls and dripped from the ceiling, coating classmates both alive and dead. Rika didn’t move. This wasn’t from shock or because of the orders she and the rest of her class were given. There just wasn’t a point in deciding between moving and not moving.

Rena had moved, to try and save Keiichi. It was possible she was still alive, but Rika didn’t have the energy to turn her head and check. Keiichi had moved out of reflex, to try and help Mion and possibly put a stop to this tragedy. His death was incontestable. Mion hadn’t been given the choice to move or not. She had merely been silenced by a metal blade sliding along her throat, cutting her off mid-recitation. Killing those three first was the smart thing to do, and Rika hated that: even in their frenzy, the person who killed her friends was still lucid enough to do all of this  _ correctly _ .

Satoko… Satoko wasn’t here.

By some miracle of fortune, Satoko had slipped out of the classroom right before the killing had started, and Satoko hadn’t tried to return. Nobody had tried opening the doors only to find them locked. Even then, was no way that she wouldn’t have heard the screaming and the whimpers and the deranged muttering from their classroom. She  _ must _ have left. Maybe she had gone to contact the police. Maybe... she was preparing a trap even now to catch the killer the moment they tried to leave. Maybe… maybe she just ran away after hearing the trouble. These were all good options. Not that Satoko would be able to have a peaceful and happy life with all of her friends and classmates dead. But at least Rika wouldn’t have to see the look of terror on Satoko’s lovely face before her life was taken.

A scream of terrified pain and a spray of fresh blood brought Rika back to the classroom, and she turned towards it out of reflex. It was Okamura’s turn to die. The boxcutter made three deliberate cuts; first through the side of his throat, then the nape of his neck, and finally his temple. The hand that was holding his head released his hair and went to stroke the side of his head. Even now, she was consoling him. The cuts, too, were made with care… no, with  _ love _ , even.

Now  _ that… _ that made Rika feel sick.

“Shhh… it will all be okay, Okamura-kun. Don’t cry, don’t cry… this will get the parasites out. I’m sure of it…”

Chie-sensei pulled Okamura close to her as she pulled the boxcutter vertically up his throat, letting out another gout of blood. For the first time since their teacher had started spilling her students’ blood, Okamura’s sobs and trembling stopped. Chie-sensei released him and let him slump back down into his seat. 

_ And then there were… four? Five? It doesn’t matter. _

“Even if this doesn’t get them out, at least you’ll have died free. You won’t have been… god, this itch...” The hand that was holding Okamura close drifted to Chie-sensei’s own neck and  _ scratched _ . Rika could see the bits of red flesh caught underneath her nails when she took her hand away. Chie-sensei’s eyes were manic, horrible, terrifying… but the tears at the edges of them, Rika felt like those were real enough. “Now, Tomita-kun-”

“You’re doing this wrong,” said Rika.

“ _ Eh? _ ” Chie-sensei’s full attention was focused on Rika in an instant. “I’m doing this  _ wrong _ , Furude-san? How would you know?” Chie-sensei let out a small, dark laugh as the corners of her mouth turned upward, showing Rika the same smile that a fox would show a baby chick moments before the helpless bird would be devoured. “But of course, you  _ would _ know more than the average little girl when it comes to this… wouldn’t you?”

“I’ve heard some things about parasites from Irie-san… mostly stuff I’ve overheard from when he’s dealing with Satoko-chan.” Rika paused; she expected to be met with a harsh (though accurate) accusation of lying, but Chie-sensei was letting her speak. “I think he said it primarily lives in the lymph nodes, and-”

The sound of Chie-sensei’s nails tearing even deeper into her own neck was harsh enough to break Rika’s train of thought. By this point, the gash was deep enough to fully swallow her nails and most of her fingertips. Maybe it was the differences between how men and women treated their nails, but she was cutting through her neck far faster than Ooishi, Akasaka, or any of the others. The idea of trying to stall Chie-sensei floated through Rika’s mind. Maybe if she wasted enough of her teacher’s time, Chie-sensei would make her way through her own neck faster than she could make her way through the rest of her classmates.

_...maybe that’d be worth trying if there was a point in saving anyone. Even if it was enough to spare my own life, that’d just make resetting the loop all the more inconvenient. _

Chie laughed. “Oh, aren’t you such a smart girl, Furude-san-”

“I wasn’t finished. It lives in the lymph nodes, and if you did it right, the cuts you’re making along the sides of the neck would do the trick. But the parasites spend a lot of their time in other places. You’d have to drive them out of the rest of the body - if you don’t do that, you’re just killing them.”

“Drive them out…?” Chie let her head fall to the side in a slow, inquisitive tilt - giving her even more space to scratch away her neck. “It’s not that simple, Furude-san. I can’t just go to the clinic for help with this - I’ve  _ tried _ . And yet you make that sound like it’s something I could just  _ do _ .”

“That’s the thing, Chie-sensei. You just need to heat up the body and they’d go back to the nodes. Sure it might be best if you had the director or someone induce a fever and do this surgically, but there’s more than one way to heat someone up. You could have even done it if you put enough spice in some curry.”

“C… curry?”

It really was like Rika had said a magic word. Chie-sensei immediately stopped scratching at her neck and blinked. She looked back at Rika, and the madness had almost faded from her eyes. Rika couldn’t believe that it worked.

“That’s right,” said Rika, her tone brightening back to the register she used to convince people that things were okay during happier times. “You could have made everyone a big pot of delicious spicy curry and then treated them afterward. You wouldn’t even have needed to kill anyone to save them!”

Chie-sensei’s expression was still blank. Even so, the hand at her neck was trembling. Already, this wave of clarity was getting swallowed by the delirium once more. “Is that true, Rika-chan?”

“No.”

Chie-sensei drew back. Whether it was at the stark rebuttal or the switch to her darkest and most bitter tone of voice, Rika neither knew nor cared.

“Besides,” Rika continued, “even if it were, I wouldn’t participate. Not even to save my life. I’m sick of curry to a degree that you couldn’t possibly comprehend. Just the  _ thought _ of eating curry makes me want to puke. Really, Chie-sensei, if you’re going to kill me today, I should thank you, since it means I never have to eat curry again-”

Her head was painfully yanked backward and her gaze was forced to meet her teacher’s. Chie-sensei’s teeth were gritted and her eyes contained something that was rare enough from her to be novel, even to someone like Rika. It was fury, untempered by the madness and completely overpowering any of the distorted expressions of kindness from before.

“What  _ blasphemy _ ! How could you say such dreadful, hurtful things?!” Chie-sensei drew her free hand to the side of her face as she started to laugh. “The fact that you could watch everything that’s happened to your friends and schoolmates… see everything that I’ve done… what could possibly drive you to piss me off like that?!”

“Because I don’t want you killing me out of some warped idea that you’d be saving me.” Rika looked away from her teacher. “I’ve heard the bullshit about parasites and salvation way too much by now. If you’re going to kill me, Chie-sensei, at least kill me over curry. It’s stupid and it’s undignified, but at least then I‘d know that you’re doing it for a reason that’s in line for your character.”

Chie-sensei laughed again, even harder. “Is that so, Rika-chan? What sort of person do you take me for?”

“A coward.” Rika laughed bitterly. “Of all the people in Hinamizawa, you're the one that's disappointed me the most. Truly, you are.”

She stared into Chie-sensei’s eyes, letting the contempt and disappointment and the misery of a hundred years of stifled lifetimes shine through. Her teacher’s expression only grew more furious.

“When I look at you, I almost see the face of someone who could do so much good. Someone who would be a powerful ally if she even bothered to  _ try _ . But you never do. You never have. All you do is dream of curry and keep your head down and  _ lie _ about how there's nothing you can do to help anyone. Even a small, innocent child like Satoko could do more to save this town than you. Do you know that? You're a  _ joke _ , Rumiko Chie. And I can't even bring myself to laugh anymore.”

Rika broke eye contact, going back to the unfocused stare of before. “Now, be useful for once and kill me already. I'm done.”

Her head was jerked upwards and there was a flash of pain. Someone screamed her name, but Rika was no longer listening. Whatever furious, maddened reply Chie-sensei had to her words fell on deaf ears. There was a strained, painful breath, a warmth soaking her shirt, a certain lightheadedness as the blood her brain needed was forcefully redirected. Even if she never knew for certain that she had had her throat slit in a past loop, it still felt hauntingly familiar.

Rika felt a growing numbness in her fingertips as she curled her fingers inward. The act of taking another finger away, to watch her self-imposed deadline tick closer… It felt like a concession. It felt like closing the door of a hospital room behind you, because you couldn’t stand to watch the doctors take a loved one off of life support. It was unfair, and  _ cruel _ , and there was no earthly force that you could confront to make this better. But Rika didn’t have the strength to rage against the heavens anymore. That was for next time - and hopefully, it would end better than this.

_ Snap. _


End file.
